Unlocking Social and Economic Innovation Together – USE-IT!

Welcome to USE-IT! page !

What is USE-IT?

Urban Innovation Actions (UIA) is a new programme of the European Commission providing urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address urban challenges. Birmingham is one of the first cities to benefit from this programme. Birmingham City Council and its 14 partners have been awarded a EUR 2,911,894 grant to deliver the USE-IT! (Unlocking Social and Economic Innovation Together) project.

Our offer

Expected results

People in the communities will access jobs at the hospital and other opportunities linked to the large investment projects planned for the area (macro-assets). New businesses will be created and developed in the area by local people and even more people will find employment within these businesses. We will support them to raise their aspirations and to access affordable educational and training opportunities. With residents, local authorities, universities, social enterprise and NHS working as equals, we hope our activities will fundamentally change the way these partners deliver and shape, education and training, investment, business support and community collaborations. We will use the intelligence and results emerging from USE-IT! as a basis for feasibility work to inform how we strengthen and use innovative forms of finance to continue to connect macro-assets and micro-assets longer-term to provide a sustainable way of ensuring the results of the project continue to be supported beyond the UIA programme. We shall do this by putting the residents and their ‘lived expertise’ at the centre of decision making.

The partnership

This project is co-financed by the European Regional and Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative.